Technology itself is not the cure-all

I believe that the worship of technology is what gathers a lot of students like me here, in Columbia University, to learn Instructional Technology and media. Indeed, technology, especially information and communicative technology transforms our society in so many ways and provide such plentiful forms and sources for our study, social and entertainment activities that we ought to respect it. It's like how ancient people worshiped and respected nature as the source of their lives. In any kind of worship, however, people are easy to get lost and then tend to ignore themselves. Depending on technology itself as the cure-all of our instructional problems or even social ills, while ignoring the positions of people in it, is the first question I come up with after taking the first class and reading the article Technology as Social Practice.

I find the topic important in that if I become an instructional designer, I don't want the product I build is something divorced from reality, which is bound to be short-lived. I have seen so many examples in studying the history of instructional design like educational movies, radio or TV programs, all of which made a heat when they were launched while none of them transformed the education industry as expected. Why is that? Some of the media cannot be easily or broadly equipped; some of them cannot be combined well with class instruction process. Furthermore, teachers resist them as they find the media not necessary or find themselves replaceable. No matter what the reason is, we should learn from the previous lessons to better consider how the technology will be better applied to solve real world problems and how well would people accept them, which is to say, let technology be encoded in social practices.

Now we see the relationship between technology and our social practices is mutual and here lies my second question that how we are shaped by technology? I was impressed by the end of the video Machine is Us/ing Us that we should reconsider policy, family and even love with the development of technology. How's that going? I remember the question I asked in the class that with the searching engine developed so advanced, most information is just a click away. Then do we still need to recite knowledge in class? What would the main focus of future school education? If only we figure out how technology is transforming our lives or the fields we are working at, can we better adjust to them, or at least avoid being out of time.

design and technology